Pope Francis no longer requires mechanical ventilation

ROME (AP) - Pope Francis had stabilized enough Tuesday after two respiratory crises to be taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and receive just high flows of supplemental oxygen, as he continued his more than two-week long fight against double pneumonia, the Vatican said.

Francis, 88, woke up and was resuming respiratory physiotherapy after sleeping through the night, the Vatican said.

The Vatican said as of Tuesday morning, Francis no longer needed to wear the mechanical ventilation mask that covers his nose and mouth to pump oxygen into his lungs and was just receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube.

He had to resume using the mask on Monday after suffering two respiratory crises that required doctors to extract “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs. Doctors performed two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid.